Maritime dispute resolution
opens possibility for quantum leap in development

Guyana
Chronicle, Sep 24 - 2007

Georgetown - President Jagdeo disappointed with time
lost over resolving issue IF there is oil in the delineated areas offshore
Guyana set by the Guyana/Suriname Arbitral Tribunal, then this would open the
way for the country to make a quantum leap in its development. These sentiments
have been circulating around the country since the tribunal made public its
award last Thursday after three-and-a-half years of proceedings and analyses.

President Bharrat Jagdeo said these sentiments are well in
order as the decision opens new vitas for Guyana’s oil search. We can’t confirm
that there is oil there immediately, but from all the surveys done, including
the US Geological surveys, they have reported that there seems to be significant
quantities. If that’s true, that would transform Guyana.”

It would provide a tremendous income to our country that
would catapult its development in the future and we can see quantum leap in our
development,” President Jagdeo commented during a special interview at the
Cheddi Jagan International Airport Friday before departing for the United States
to attend the United Nations Summit on Climate Change.

However, amidst his enthusiasm and elation, the Head of
State has regrets over the lengthy process and the delay in what could have been
a positive development for Guyana if there is really oil in those basins.

“What bothers me most, is that we lost about seven years,
and if there is oil there we could have had a thriving oil industry in Guyana
with a lot of benefits to our people… so that’s a lost opportunity and I regret
that,” President Jagdeo commented.

He emphasised his satisfaction with the decision made as
put forward in his address to the Nation on the said day the award was made
public. “I think we did extremely well in terms of the achievement of those
objectives,” the President said.

“In the first 100 miles where you have shallow waters and
it is easier to explore for oil, we have gained 84.5 percent. Suriname gained
just about 15.5 percent of that area. That puts the area - the Eagle and the
significant part of Wishbone, two sites identified by CGX as potentially rich
with hydrocarbons within Guyana’s waters, so I think we are vindicated all
around.”

President Jagdeo said at some point, the journey towards a
successful arbitral award would be analysed impressing that the decision to push
ahead with the process was not an easy one and one that could pose tremendous
consequences for the nation he leads.

“I recalled before we filed, there was this risk that the
case could have gone against us and I suspect if that had happened, today people
would not have been saying favourable things to me, but I was convinced about
the strength of our case this is why I took the decision that we should pursue
that process.”

President Jagdeo recalled that the decision to approach
the tribunal was only taken after failed attempts at bilateral negations and
interventions by CARICOM to bring a peaceful resolution to the dispute.

“I see some of the comments coming out in Suriname that
they should have paid more attention maybe to bilateral negotiations. We tried
at every single level here; in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and in Jamaica. I
went back to Suriname on a state visit. We even offered joint exploration and
exploitation which would have been to the benefit of Suriname today, but they
refused to go along that route so we had no choice if we wanted this issue
resolved to file with the UN convention on the Law of the Sea,” the President
said.

Now that the border dispute has been settled, the Head of
State said Licensees would hopefully start their exploration activities.

The award issued by the Guyana / Suriname Arbitral
Tribunal brought an end to the lengthy arbitration process between Guyana and
its eastern neighbour Suriname to demarcate the maritime boundary between the
two countries.

Established under the United Nations Convention on the Law
of the Sea, the Arbitral Tribunal made the award public on September 20 after
thousands of pages of written submissions contained in 13 printed volumes of
pleadings, scrutiny of several maps, three weeks of oral pleadings and
innumerable hours of analysing the law and facts pertinent to the case.

There were six core issues brought before the Tribunal in
the case, and Guyana’s interests and objectives have been met in each.

On February 24, 2004, Guyana after failed attempts to
settle the issue at the bilateral and CARICOM levels, gave written notification
and a statement of claim to Suriname submitting a dispute concerning the
delimitation of its maritime boundary with Suriname to an arbitral tribunal to
be constituted under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of
the Sea. (GINA)

GUYANA'S DAY WITH SURINAME - Now for
Venezuela's claim

By
Rickey Singh

THE UNANIMOUS verdict of a five-member tribunal of
international jurists on an historical maritime dispute between Guyana and
Suriname, has delivered an overwhelming victory in favour of the Guyanese nation.
The award, announced last Thursday in the capitals of both neighbouring CARICOM
states on the South American continent, points to much more than a denunciation
of Suriname's "unlawful" resort to gunboat diplomacy in 2000 to expel a Canadian
oil company from drilling operations in what has been confirmed to be Guyana's
sovereign territory.

Within hours of the posting on the international web the
award that came after three and half years of legal proceedings in The Hague,
the affected oil company, CGX Energy, jubilantly announced its readiness to
resume drilling operations in that very area of Guyana's economic zone from
which it was forcefully expelled by Surinamese gunboats.

While President Bharrat Jagdeo was hailing the award as "a
great day for Guyana", but warning against any display of "triumphalism", CGX
President and CEO, Kerry Sully, was announcing in Canada on Thursday evening an
expenditure of US$15 million on further seismic works, to be followed by a
larger investment of US$65 million on other targetted areas.

No gloating In what could prove helpful for future good
relations and exploitation of maritime resources for mutual benefit of both
nations, the award by the United Nations International Tribunal for the Law of
the Sea has firmly established a single maritime boundary between Guyana and
Suriname. This has the immediate effect of removal of all grey areas in
interpreting assumed boundary demarcations for what constitutes "sovereign
territory"

However, although being the beneficiary of some two-thirds
of the tribunal's judgement, President Jagdeo was to wisely avoid in his
broadcast any sort of gloating as he outlined details of the award and explained
positive features that could influence practical forms of cooperation between
Guyana and Suriname.

The judicial process was initiated by Guyana in 2005 with
the understanding that the judgement would be final and legally binding on both
parties.

No surprise, therefore, that while Suriname's President
Runoldo Venetiaan, sought to downplay the extent of success gained by Guyana,
and regretted the use of force in the expulsion of the Canadian oil company, CGX
Energy, he, like President Jagdeo, welcomed the tribunal's ruling and held out
hopes for neighbourly cooperation.

`Encouragingly, both countries have so far shown a
preference for the use of language to highlight the positive aspects to result
from the tribunal's ruling--for instance cooperative ventures for shared
economic development.

Their efforts, as of last week, and in particular
Guyana's-- primary beneficiary of the award--to resist the temptation to gloat,
and stay close to objective analysis of the tribunal's judgement, would be
viewed, well beyond its own shores, as being commendable and politically
correct.

The 167-page award, including graphs and maps, was the
second such judgement on demarcation of maritime boundaries, to have involved
the UN International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the first being that of
April last year between Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.

Barbados and T&T Then, both Trinidad and Tobago and
Barbados had engaged in sophisticated public communication initiatives to
project the judgement in their maritime dispute as a "win for both sides".
Nevertheless, it would have been evident to independent and informed observers
that Barbados had scored the higher ratings in the final award

What has remained intact, as both these CARICOM states now
pursue new initiatives to resolve their long standing dispute on fishing rights,
is the good relations they maintain and so vital not just for themselves but the
future of the 15-member Community of which they are valued partners.

This scenario is equally applicable to Guyana and Suriname
as they endeavour to close the book on negative developments, such as the resort
to gunboat diplomacy, and focus on how best they can cooperate with each other
in the exploitation of their marine resources and dwell peacefully as good
neighbours that are also members of CARICOM.

When a more careful assessment is made of the tribunal's
judgement on the Guyana/Suriname maritime dispute, there could well be better
appreciation for Guyana's historical treatment of the 6,000 square miles New
River Triangle area as part of its sovereign territory.

A relevant question now is what new initiatives are to be
pursued by Guyana to obtain practical cooperation from neighbouring Venezuela to
end the age-old controversy resulting from that country's claim to approximately
two-thirds of Guyanese territory in the sprawling Essequibo region, rich in
mineral and forest resources.

The Venezuela government of President Hugo Chavez likes to
talk sweetly about "good neighbourliness" and cooperation among Caribbean and
Latin American nations against "foreign aggression".

But it is more than high time for this perceived
"visionary disciple" of Simon Bolivar, to demonstrate his own awareness how
Guyana, under successive governments, continues to suffer from Venezuela's own
unhelpful and quite arrogant policy in refusing to recognise Guyanese sovereign
right to promote economic development in the Essequibo region to which
successive administrations in Caracas has laid claim.

An International Tribunal had made clear in a judgement
way back in 1899, and known as the "Paris arbitral award", that the "1897 Treaty
of Washington"---to which a then Venezuela government was party---constituted a
"full, perfect and final settlement" of the demarcated borders of what was then
colonial British Guiana, and today's Guyana, home of the CARICOM Secretariat.

Therefore, with the maritime dispute with Suriname behind
it, Guyana may now be inclined to pursue new initiatives to resolve the
controversy--as distinct from a "dispute"--arising from Venezuela's claim to
some two-thirds of its 83,000 square miles sovereign territory.

Surinamese opposition vows
to oust government over UN Tribunal ruling

Guyana
Chronicle, Sep 22 - 2007

The Suriname opposition party led by former President
Jules Wijdenbosch is angered by the UN Tribunal on the Law of the Sea on the
Guyana/Suriname maritime border dispute which favours Guyana. According to the
Suriname correspondent for the Caribbean Net News, Ivan Cairo the Venetiaan
government is being blamed for the poor preparation to challenge the claims by
Guyana laid at the Tribunal in February 2004.

Wijdenbosch is arguing that the government failed to treat
this matter as an issue of national interest and excluded political opponents
from participating in the preparation. “When you do that, this is the result you
will get. This is unacceptable,” Wijdenbosch told reporters. The ex-Surinamese
President further noted that when he was in office the dispute with Guyana
flared up in June 2000 and he sought a solution under the auspices of CARICOM at
the highest political level with President Bharrat Jagdeo.

“But when this government came into office they downgraded
the issue by putting it back in the hands of the Border Commission. The
Surinamese government should have pursued the course of finding a solution with
Guyana on the political level, Wijdenbosch contended.

According to former Surinamese military strongman of the
main opposition party NDP in 2000 it was all about the area which the Tribunal
has awarded to Guyana. “We got water and fish, and Guyana got the oil,” NDP
parliamentarian Rashied Doekhie, adding that Suriname should be in mourning for
a week. Meanwhile, the joint Surinamese opposition has issued a statement
hinting at action to oust the government.

“The International Tribunal on the Convention of the Law
of the Sea handed down a ruling that is disadvantageous to our country and
people. An irrevocable verdict which is sempiternal and has taken away
tremendous development opportunities for our people. Structural exclusion of all
other Surinamese experts has resulted in the fact that today our nation is faced
with a disastrous ruling of the International Tribunal.”

The statement further noted that the joint opposition from
now on is considering steps in order to prevent the government continuing to
“bargain the interests of our nation and continue to impoverish our people.”

President Venitiaan who announced his government’s
acceptance of the ruling by the Tribunal in response to the opposition claims
remarked: “This is the nature of the opposition”. He added when the problem
arose his party was in the opposition and stood firmly behind the government
supporting the eviction of the CGX oil rig from the disputed area. He noted too
that it was the Wijdenbosch administration which ratified the UN Convention on
the Law of the Sea.